Sherlock Holmes series (1887-1927)
The Scottish author Arthur Conan Doyle created one of fiction’s best-loved characters with his canny and troubled sleuth Sherlock Holmes. The consulting detective, known for his powers of deduction, his sharp tongue and his cocaine addiction, has seen numerous incarnations across animation, theatre, art and film.
In TV land, the adventures of Holmes and sidekick Watson are currently inspiring two separate successful TV adaptations. The BBC’s Sherlock pairs Benedict Cumberbatch with Martin Freeman’s ex-military doctor, while HBO’s Elementary sees Jonny Lee Miller as Holmes team up with Lucy Liu, a former surgeon turned counsellor. Varying in length, structure and style, both series work well in their own right, owing no small due to Conan Doyle’s genius for plots and characterisation. The original canon features 56 short stories and four novels.
Parade’s End (1924-1928), Ford Madox Ford
Better known for his role as everyone’s favourite fictional detective, Benedict Cumberbatch also gives a great turn as the hero of Madox Ford’s wartime tetralogy Parade’s End. Christopher Tietjens is a brilliant man in an evil world, a genius statistician who spends much of his life in battle, whether at war or at home.
The scenes in the trenches of the first World War are particularly vivid, informed by Madox Ford’s own experiences as a soldier. The intelligence and casual cruelty of Tietjens’s wife Sylvia is skilfully depicted by the English actress Rebecca Hall in the adaptation. Branded a “high-brow Downton Abbey” by critics, the five-part series was written and directed by Tom Stoppard and broadcast in Britain in 2012.
House of Cards (1989), Michael Dobbs
The former Conservative MP was inspired to write his first novel after the 1987 general election campaign. Thatcher won comfortably in the end, but not without making enemies along the way, according to Baron Dobbs. His bird’s-eye view of the administration gave him plenty of material for House of Cards, a political thriller centred on the rise to power and “inexhaustible lusts” of Machiavellian politician Frances Urquhart.
The 1990 BBC mini-series, which won two Baftas, starred Ian Richardson as the amoral chief whip. The recent Netflix version, featuring Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright as manipulative power couple Frank and Claire Underwood, has introduced a new generation of viewers to the machinations of political life.
Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets (1991), David Simon
Before The Wire, another American police procedural drama was documenting the violence and crime of the city of Baltimore, Maryland. Based on the award-winning book by Baltimore Sun reporter David Simon, Homicide: Life on the Street was lauded for its naturalism, its realistic set-ups and outcomes, and for casting African-American actors in its lead roles.
Simon spent a year embedded in the homicide unit of the Baltimore Police as research for his book. Although he initially declined to work on the series, he joined as a writer in season two in the early nineties. Simon went on to adapt another book, The Corner, for TV with Ed Burns, before turning his hand to his best-known creation, The Wire.
A Song of Ice and Fire (1996 - ), George RR Martin
Winter’s been coming to millions of viewers across the world since 2011, and it looks set to stay that way with a sixth series of HBO’s hugely successful Games of Thrones commissioned for 2016.
As the various “noble” houses battle each other for the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms, a massive cast gives plenty of scope for bloodshed, brutality and breasts, filmed in a variety of locations from Northern Ireland to Croatia.
Martin wrote one of the episodes in each of the first four series but has since taken a break to complete the sixth Thrones’ novel, The Winds of Winter. No sign of summer any time soon then.
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell (2004), Susanna Clarke
The Napoleonic Wars of 19th-century England form the backdrop of Clarke’s debut novel, a mix of fantasy, historical fiction and alternative history. The ancient practice of magic is revived in northern England by Gilbert Norrell, who stuns a group of “theoretical magicians” with his ability to bring statues in York Cathedral to life.
Moving to London to help with the war effort, Norrell is introduced to Strange by a street magician. The line between reason and madness, reality and fantasy, is at the heart of the novel. A film version scripted by Julian Fellowes was in the offing a few years back, but the BBC got there first with its seven-part mini-series that premiered in May.
Quirke series (2006 - ), Benjamin Black
John Banville’s Benjamin Black crime series was the basis for last year’s Quirke, a three-part mini-series co-produced by RTÉ and the BBC. Three novels in the Irish noir series, set in a bleak and rainy fifties Dublin, formed the basis of the adaptation.
Christine Falls, The Silver Swan and Elegy for April each had individual episodes, with the cast of Irish actors putting on their best gloomy faces including Gabriel Byrne as the titular detective, Peter Coonan, Michael Gambon and Charlie Murphy. The books were adapted by screenwriter Andrew Davies and Irish playwright Conor McPherson.
Olive Kitteridge (2008), Elizabeth Strout
Strout’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel lends itself well to the mini-series format, with its ensemble cast and structure of interconnected stories. The book follows the lives of the inhabitants of the fictional seaside town of Crosby, Maine, focusing on the titular character and her long-suffering husband Henry.
High school teacher Olive’s depression and abrasive manner have alienated family and friends over the course of her life, but this complex character has many sides and her loyalty, bravery and resilience eventually emerge through Strout’s masterful depiction. Frances McDormand gives another knockout performance as Olive in HBO’s excellent four-part adaptation that premiered in 2014.
Wolf Hall (2008), Hilary Mantel
Mantel’s Booker Prize winning novel took her five years to research, with the author wanting to make her story as historically accurate as possible. Set in the court of Henry VIII in 16th-century England, the novel charts the rise of Thomas Cromwell, whose influence over the king was a major factor in the English Reformation.
Personified by the renowned stage actor Mark Rylance in the BBC’s recent adaptation, Cromwell oversaw Henry’s annulment to Catherine of Aragon and his subsequent marriage to Anne Boleyn. Claire Foy gives a memorable performance as King Henry’s ill-fated second wife in the six-part series, based on Wolf Hall and Mantel’s sequel Bring Up the Bodies.
Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times and Corruption of Atlantic City (2010), Nelson Johnson
With a pilot episode directed by Martin Scorsese costing $18 million, HBO must have been confident that American lawyer Nelson Johnson’s book on Prohibition-era gangsters had enough material for at least a season or two. Five seasons later, Boardwalk Empire had won 17 Emmys, two Golden Globes for Best Television Series and widespread critical acclaim for Steve Buscemi’s portrayal of Atlantic City gangster Enoch “Nucky” Thompson.
After becoming a judge, Johnson was asked by the New Jersey State Superior Court to cease promoting the book and the series in order to preserve the ethical neutrality of his role.
